


The Cancellation

by starsnow



Category: American Vandal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 10:31:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsnow/pseuds/starsnow
Summary: ”I’m sorry boys, but American Vandal has been cancelled by Netflix.”It hit him like a punch in the gut. It’s over. The greatest thing to ever happen to him was over. He didn’t realize words on a screen could cause him physical pain but there he was.





	The Cancellation

Sam struggled to stay awake for the last few minutes of his 9:30 am European Literature class. He knew having an 8 am class followed by this one would suck, but they were the only semi-decent options left when he finally had his chance to sign up. Being a freshman is really the worst sometimes. At least he was done for the day as soon as his professor finished going over requirements for their next essay for the fourth time.

After class he walked back to his dorm trying to figure out the best way to kill an hour before he was meeting up with some friends for lunch. To make up for his rotten sign up time, he did get lucky enough to live close to the dining hall.

Once he reached his room he heard his phone ring. He almost hit ignore on reflex until he realized it was his mom calling. That’s weird. They had worked out a pretty good communication schedule.  Why would she be calling now? Confused, he answered the phone.

“Hi Mom”

“Sweetheart, are you doing okay?”

Really? She was just checking in? Since he already spent months away from home senior year he thought wouldn’t have to go through any helicopter parenting in college.

“I’m fine. I called Saturday. I’m the same as I was then.”

“He hasn’t told you?”

“Who? Told me what?”

“Oh Sammy, I was checking your old Hotmail account, you know Grandma sometimes sends important emails there, and I saw an email from Mr. Gilden. I guess he sent it to the wrong address”

“You saw an email from our agent?” This didn’t make sense. Why would his mom call him with American Vandal news? She would usually just forward anything important to his current email.

“Baby, he said they cancelled American Vandal.”

His heart skipped a beat. No way. There’s no way Netflix cancelled them. They were one of the top ten streamed documentary series on Netflix.  They were nominated for a freaking Emmy. There’s no way he wouldn’t have heard from Peter by now if they’d been cancelled. His mom must have misread the email. That’s it. Mr. Gilden was probably just saying that they wanted season 3 sooner because they cancelled something else. That’s fine he and Peter can figure that out.

Without answering his Mom, he logged into the old email address he hadn’t used since 10th grade and found the email from Mr. Gilden. 

Holding his breath he read the first sentence.

”I’m sorry boys, but American Vandal has been cancelled by Netflix.”

It hit him like a punch in the gut. It’s over. The greatest thing to ever happen to him was over. He didn’t realize words on a screen could cause him physical pain but there he was. 

He heard his phone ring again. His mom must have thought they got disconnected.

This time he didn’t hesitate to answer. As soon as he heard his mom say, “Sammy did you read the email?” he started crying. He didn’t want to be alone in a dorm room right now. He had felt so grown up in the past few months. Now all he wanted was his Mom to be cuddling with him on the couch as he drank her special hot chocolate; just like he did when he didn’t get cast in the middle school play in sixth grade. 

He thought of the planning they had already started for Season 3, how confident they were they would get renewed.  “It doesn’t make any sense. We worked so hard, it was doing so well. How can this happen?” He tried to suppress the waver in his voice, but he knew his mom could tell he was crying.

“I wish it made more sense, baby. Sometimes things just happen no matter how much you work and how good you are.”

“I don’t want it to end this way.”

“I know, but once something happens you can’t spend your time wishing it didn’t. You have to spend time on things you can control, move forward.”

He took a couple of deep breaths. His mom was taking to him like an adult. What she’s saying makes sense. He’s an adult now; he can handle this.

“Thanks Mom. I needed to hear that.”

“I’m sorry you have to go through this Sam. Do you think you might want to come home for some time this weekend?”

He was still enough of a teenager to be happy he had that option. “Can I let you know Thursday?”

“Of course, Love you.”

“Love you too Mom. Bye”

He hung up and thought back to the beginning of the call. His mom assumed that Peter had told him.  He checked just to make sure Mr. Gilden had the right email for Peter and then shot him a casual text about it. It was kind of weird to text about something this big, but he hadn’t even read the whole email yet. He should make sure he understood it all before talking to Peter about it.

But he couldn’t bring himself to read it yet. Maybe if they just ignored it they could just make Season 3 anyway and Netflix would be forced to accept it. After 10 minutes of hoping for the email to disappear from his inbox, he picked up his laptop and started to read.

Each detail struck his mind like a dart, slowly deflating his glimmer of hope for another season. Mr. Gilden explained that in the contract they signed over the rights to the name American Vandal. They couldn’t use the name unless they somehow came up with the tens of thousands of dollars needed to buy it back from Netflix. The email kept going on into some legal mumbo jumbo that seemed to boil down to Netflix owning the concept of American Vandal too. They couldn’t just change the name and keep going unless they were willing to risk getting sued. Mr. Gilden spoke with some of his contacts from other TV networks, groups with enough money to buy out Netflix, but it was looking unlikely any of them would risk investing so much in a couple of kids fresh out of high school. He wrote that the official press release would go out Friday and with one more sincere sounding apology Mr. Gilden signed off the email. And that was the end of American Vandal.

Sam just wanted to curl up on his bed and watch cheesy musicals and romcoms for the rest of the day. Though since he’s not watching Netflix again for the rest of his life, his options there would be limited. He glanced over at his roommate’s alarm clock. It’s been almost half an hour since he texted Peter. God, if this was affecting him so badly how would Peter be feeling right now? American Vandal has basically been his whole life for the past three years. He picked up his phone and tried calling, but there was no answer. Sam was really starting to get worried.

He got out his phone and scrolled through text messages until got to the contact he named “Winston Peter’s Roommate.” As bad as he was feeling he smiled a bit rereading the only text he’d gotten from Winston.

“Hey Sam, it’s Winston Peter’s roommate. He’s like really tired working on his midterm project and sent me a text that was for you. I tried to get him to send it to you. But he was pretty much asleep so he just told me your number for some reason? Actually I have no idea if this is actually your number. Fingers crossed I’m not texting his ex. Anyway Peter says Hey Sammyyyyyyyyy I love you so much and I wish you were editing with me.”

He hoped Winston could live up to the title of “greatest roommate ever” that Sam had given him in response and help him figure out what’s going on with Peter.

**Sam** : Hey Winston, thanks again for sending me that text. Do you think could you do me a huge favor?

**Winston** : Uhh maybe what’s going on?

**Sam** : Pete’s not answering my texts. Could you see if he’s in your room?

**Winston** : Yeah sure give me a sec to go upstairs.

Sam waited, wondering what he would do if Peter wasn’t in his room.

**Winston** : Damn! What’s wrong with him? I just walked in like I forgot my textbook and saw him typing super intense. I swear stared at him for like a second. But he noticed and gave me a death glare. Then just I got outta there.

Sam hesitates, but decides he has to tell Winston if the guy is going to have to live with Peter like this.

**Sam** : You have to promise you won’t tell anyone

**Winston** : You got my word

**Sam** : Netflix cancelled American Vandal

**Winston** : Holy shit! What are you going to do? Call his Mom?

**Sam** : Nah, I don’t have any more classes for the rest of the day so I’m coming over

**Winston** : Okay text me if you can’t get into the building

**Sam** : Thanks Winston

Sam got his stuff ready for the hour and a half long trip and headed out to his car. He decided to put on the funniest podcast he had on his phone to try to distract himself from getting too depressed about the cancellation or too worried about Peter. All he could do now was drive.

He was thankful someone held the door open for him as he rushed toward Peter’s dorm holding the McDonald’s he had picked up on the way. As he walked up to the second floor he tried to figure out what he was going to say, reworking some of the stuff his mom had said to him.

He reached Peter’s room and turned the knob glad to find that Winston had left it unlocked. Slowly he opened the door; not too surprised that it revealed a disheveled Peter in his pajamas slumped over his laptop furiously typing.

He didn’t even look up from his computer as he growled “Winston I’m busy. Stop distracting me!”

The vitriol in his voice made Sam’s mind go blank. All he could think to say was, “I brought you lunch,” as he held up the paper bag.

Sam could see some of the tension leave his shoulders as Peter lifted his head and nodded.

They ate their Big Macs and fries in silence on Peter’s bed. When they finished Peter mumbled, “Thanks I hadn’t really eaten since...”

“Yeah I was thinking you might not have,” Sam replied, hating how Peter couldn’t finish that sentence, but unable to really finish his either.

After gathering up his trash, Peter reached for his laptop again. He started typing, but this time more sluggishly than before.

Sam leaned over to read that Peter was typing up a letter to the head of TLC, begging for them to consider taking on American Vandal. If he was already down to TLC how many emails had Peter typed out so far today?

Sam reached out and put a hand gently on Peter’s shoulder, “I think you should take a break, Pete”

He shook off Sam’s hand. “I can’t take a break. I got 6 more of these emails to type out.”

“Okay so then after that we could…” Sam started.

“No, after I’ve finished those I have to work on improving the proposal for Season 3. Make it clear it’s going to be twice as good as the first two seasons combined. Then I’m going to compile all the reviews we got and any viewer statistics I can find...” Somehow Peter was managing to talk and type at the same time. 

Sam knows Peter. Peter doesn’t stop working until he gets exactly the result he wants. This was the first time Sam’s sure no matter how hard Peter would work it won’t affect the outcome.

He leaned forward and lifted Peter’s hands off the keyboard.  Peter turned his head to look at Sam, but he didn’t know what to do next. All he knew is he couldn’t stand to watch Peter futilely type away for another minute. They just sat there, staring at each other, with Peter’s wrists in Sam’s hands.

Then the floodgates broke. Peter started sobbing louder than Sam had ever heard from him before. Sam gathered Peter up into his arms and rubbed his back as Peter cried into the crook of his neck. Sam could feel his eyes fill with tears again as he felt the emotion wrack through Peter’s body.

He’s not sure if it was 5 minutes or an hour but slowly Peter’s sobs began to quiet. Sam shifted them so he was lying on his back with Peter’s head on his chest and his arms still wrapped around Peter. He could feel Peter relax some.

“I’m nothing now” He heard Peter whisper into his chest.

“No, Pete”

“I was the American Vandal guy. Now I’m nothing”

“No, Peter you were never just the American Vandal guy. What you are is a good film student, an amazing artist, a surprisingly competent baker and … the best boyfriend I could ask for.”

Peter titled his head to look up at Sam “You’re not breaking up with me?”

“What gave you that idea?” said Sam bringing his hand up to cup Peter’s cheek.

“It’s just that we got together because of American Vandal so I just assumed.”

“We got together during American Vandal. Not because of it. The reason we weren’t together before American Vandal is that we were idiot fifteen year olds who didn’t understand their own feelings.”

“To be fair I still have trouble understanding my own feelings sometimes,” Peter yawned.

“Yep” was the last thing Sam remembers saying before waking up to see the lights had been turned off and Peter’s laptop had been moved from what must have been a very precarious position on the edge Peter’s bed. He checked his phone to see what time it was and saw a text from Winston offering to find himself another place to sleep tonight. He really was the best roommate ever.

“Pete, wake up” Sam said shifting his position some.

Peter groggily sat up, “Fuck, I hoped it was a dream.”

“Nope it’s real, as much as I wish it wasn’t.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Well to start I guess we don’t have an excuse to take off next semester.”

“Damn I was looking forward working on it with you.”

“I guess we’ll just have to plan an epic spring break trip together instead.” Sam said grinning slightly.

“I’ll have to check my calendar,” Peter joked finally starting to look like himself again, “You know, one of my friends from my digital media studies class was asking me for advice on this political satire film he’s  going to start working on. Maybe I could see if he could use any more help with it.”

“You’ll be alright with not having the final say in everything?”

“To tell you the truth, I could use a break from being in charge. What about you?”

“I was feeling disappointed I’d be missing out on my school’s production of Sweeney Todd. It’s kind of nice that I can be involved with it now.” Suddenly Sam could start seeing how he might like going through college at a regular pace, not having to work around the American Vandal schedule.

“But Netflix still sucks right?”

“I swear I’m cancelling my family’s Netflix subscription for at least a month.”

“Fuck Netflix!” Peter yelled.

“They don’t know what they’re missing out on!”

“But not us,” Peter said wrapping his arms around Sam's neck, “We’re not missing anything.”

Sam looked into Peter’s eyes and knew it was true.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still so annoyed that American Vandal was cancelled! It was cancelled the day after I posted my last fic which really sucked. Maybe posting this one will bring it back? Probably not, but if it does you all owe me! Either way thanks for reading!


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